A JANUARY PHOTO SHOOT

It all started with a phone call the night before telling me to be at the airport for an 11:00 briefing for a long awaited photo shoot. The subject was a recently re-restored 1938 Beechcraft SD17S Staggerwing owned by a retired businessman from West Vancouver. We wanted to get some air to air shots for a magazine article and this was the first day that both the weather and everyone’s schedules coincided. The plan called for using a Robertson helicopter, a 4 place R44 as the camera ship as we could take the doors off for unrestricted sightlines. It seemed like a good plan, everyone inside and warm except the photographer – me.

Photo ship pilot & owner, Roy Heaps

The air temperature on the ground was -4C[i] with calm winds, sky clear and a million. How can it get any better? I had a borrowed arctic type flight suit and an all Canadian Toque. Gloves were a problem though, if they were to be warm, they’d be too thick to operate the cameras. Oh well, tough it out bare handed and get on with it.

Everyone involved got together and arrangements were briefed for altitude, direction of flight for the best light and the backgrounds, airspeeds and radio frequencies were confirmed. As the R44 cruises at 110, it was agreed by all that the Staggerwing, being faster, would form up on the helicopter as required.

The air was smooth with no wind to speak of. The local mountain peaks were clear with a coating of fresh snow made which made for an excellent backdrop for the bright yellow Staggerwing.

Staggerwing over north shore mountains

During the shoot, the helicopter pilot would yaw the helicopter towards the Staggerwing to help position the shots and this of course put even more cold air into the back cabin. At one point I became concerned when it appeared that I had a camera failure. I switched to a backup camera only to have the same issue. As it happened, both cameras were fine; it was my hands that weren’t. I was losing feeling in my fingers and couldn’t feel the camera controls.  The pain from the cold quickly became unbearable. (See foot note.) However, as we changed locations or the Staggerwing repositioned, I took the opportunity to get the gloves back on and restore some semblance of feeling to my hands.

All went well and as a result, we got the last of the pictures we needed.

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[i] A quick check with “Professor” Google, a temperature of -4C and an airspeed of 110 mph = a wind-chill of -43C!